Every day I hit the ground running at 6:06am (I add that 6 minutes to the alarm so I don't feel that it's so close to 5am), and get prepped for the day quietly so as not to wake my adorable little boy sleeping in his playpen. Dave gets up at the last possible minute, usually while I'm "nattering in his ear" that he needs to help me get Z ready. After breakfast as a family in the lodge, Z is off with Katie for the morning and Dave and I head to the prayer room and do devotions. Around that time the sun is just peeking over the top of the ridge behind the Hotel, making me realize how early we have started our day... and just how excited I am for another day at YWAM!
This week we had a teacher named Joe, who spoke about the Father Heart of God. His teaching opened my eyes to the shame and self-condemnation that I have lived with for the past few years. One day as Joe was teaching I was so overwhelmed I had to excuse myself because I was crying so hard. God gently touched my heart and told me that I have not been living in the freedom that He wants to offer me. I have been living with guilt, and serving Him because He is God and I know He is the only One worth living for... but holding Him and His love at arm's length, because I felt so unworthy of true love from Him.
We also had teaching on signs and wonders of the Holy Spirit this week which challenged my thinking about healings, speaking in tongues, and other works of the Spirit in our current day. The Holy Spirit is moving and working at this base, and we have seen healings and people have been given the gift of tongues during the last week. It's amazing to be somewhere where the Spirit is talked about just as frequently as Jesus and the Father... and we are seeing first hand the life of power that we have been called to walk in! Praise God!
Every Friday we go downtown and do an outreach to the local street people and partyers that are hanging out down there. Last week I went with the group that was talking to street people and praying for healings and such. It was a good night, but then this week our teacher talked about how he and his wife had realized that they had no unsaved friends. He talked about how they had started going to the bar every weekend and making friends, not drinking, just being a light in a dark place. To date, he and his wife have more that 150unsaved friends and they have had the chance to share the gospel with almost all of them! A few have even accepted Christ and have asked that they start a church!
I was so inspired by their story of being like Jesus: a friend of sinners... so this Friday Dave, Stian (another student in our DTS), and I spent the evening in a bar. We all connected with people, got to share friendship, drinks (Sprite for the win!), and got phone numbers of a few people. We are planning to go back next Friday and continue the work that God has begun in our new friend's lives. We carry the Spirit of God within us, and we took that Spirit into the bar- so amazing to be a torch for the light of God! It was a great night of friendship ministry.
Every day is hard, and tiring, and stretching, and seems very long... but then I get to the end of the week and I take a deep breath... and suddenly the week seems very short, and I am hungry for more of what God has for us here. Please keep praying for us! Next week: hearing the voice of God... it's gonna be EPIC!
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